​​Nepali Women Fetched Water Before Daybreak

Kamala Magar’s day used to begin before dawn. The Nepali farmer would get up and walk miles in the cold to fetch water for her family. It would take her most of the morning to retrieve just one jar, which she’d use to make breakfast before setting out for more.

“We couldn’t sleep. We had to go for water. We couldn’t wash ourselves or our clothes. We didn’t have any water to grow vegetables or greens. We had no water for anything,” says Magar, who belongs to the South Asian nation’s indigenous Magar ethnic group.

In Nepal, where 70 percent of the population depend on agricultural livelihoods, access to water has actually improved in recent decades. However, just 25 per cent of the water supply is reported to be fully functioning and almost 40 per cent requires major repairs, says Nepal’s Department of Water Supply and Sewerage.

The World Health Organization says 71 percent of all Nepalese water sources, and 91 percent of those used by the poorest quintile, are contaminated with E. coli.

Multiple Use Water Systems Ease The Burden

To combat the situation, iDE has implemented a program that installs Multiple Use Water Systems (MUS) to tap and store water, and then distribute it to households in small communities, to meet both domestic and household agricultural needs.

With support from the Nepalese government, a consortium led by iDE has developed 182 local MUS, serving 22,500 people in the nation’s remote west.

In Magar’s case, a MUS now provides piped water from a spring source which delivers water to 20 families for domestic use and vegetable production. The new system cuts down on hours of labor every day for women and girls, who are usually the household members tasked with collecting water.

“Before, we couldn’t sleep, we had to go for water,” says Magar with a wide grin. “Now we can sleep until 7am because we have piped water. Now we have water anytime.”

Anukulan Program Powered Poor Farmers

The MUS work was part of a broader iDE program to build resilience among Nepalese farmers. The £7.7 million Anukulan program powered poor farmers, who only grew enough to feed their families and were vulnerable to extreme weather events and food insecurity.

From 2015 to 2019, more than 600,000 people in 120,000 households improved their resilience and livelihood strategies under Anukulan, with low income and marginalized farmers earning greater annual incomes thanks to the program’s “Commercial Pocket Approach” (CPA).

The approach was tailored to Nepal’s varied topography and social vulnerability, which make the country especially susceptible to climate-related disasters. A 2021 report by the World Bank Group said Nepal would face climate change-induced losses equivalent to 2.2 percent of annual GDP by 2050.

Commercial Pocket Approach Increased Incomes

Using the CPA, iDE powered low income and marginalized farmers to improve their resilience to shocks and stressors, and boost their incomes at the same time. Some 1.8 million people are now covered under LAPAs established by Anukulan.

The CPA has been shown to increase coordination among local market actors, including smallholder farmers and women, and private sector input retailers and traders, using rural collection centers.

A cost benefit analysis of the Anukulan project showed a 3.6 to 1 return on investment over a three-year period, which rises to 10 to 1 if taken over 10 years, reflecting the sustainable nature of the intervention. On average, farmer incomes grew by £231 annually.

Anukulan Achieved Remarkable Results

The Future For Anukulan-Style Programming

iDE’s proven approach has the potential to be scaled up in various contexts through human-centered design approach, directly contributing to increased socioeconomic, environmental, and project sustainability. A high-level policy dialogue group including government, private sector, and major development actors facilitated an extensive evaluation – by consultants IOD PARC – of the Commercial Pockets Approach. The evaluation not only found the Commercial Pocket Approach raised household incomes by 40.8 percent, but that it was more sustainable and cost-effective than alternatives, with particularly strong results for women and girls.

Project Resources